Beneath the Sky so Blue
by Sarazz Prime
Summary: For almost three years he has been her mentor and teacher. She would have been considered an aspiring alchemist if only they were in Amestris. But somehow amidst the European Theatre of World War II, alchemy may yet rise into our own world.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Full Metal Alchemist. All recognizable characters are the sole property of Hiromu Arakawa. All unrecognizable ones are the creative property of yours truly; their theft is punishable by severe use of wicked juju via black voodoo that shall and has been proven to result in the subduing and forced watch of Excel Saga episodes dubbed with American voices (not sure if that's a usable form of punishment but it's worth a shot!).

Because, like mama always told ya...stealing is wrong.

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**Title: BENEATH THE SKY SO BLUE**

**Summoner:** For almost three years he has been her mentor and teacher. She would have been considered an aspiring alchemist if only they were in Amestris. But somehow amidst the European Theatre of World War II, alchemy may yet rise into our own world.

**Rating:** T

**Warning:** Mild language and violence. Some possible mature themes. Further or added warnings will be posted on a chapter-to-chapter basis.

**Author Note:** No! Say it ain't so! Another story with the dreaded OC, OH THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL! Yes, yes, and yes! And as I've always said before, _I really can't bring myself to care much_. I've always wanted to attempt a Full Metal Alchemist fanfiction, but was afraid I would get lost in the storylines f I tried to tap into the anime series. But before I start, and before you all start asking questions and pointing out the obvious:

Yes, the title of this story is named after the last episode of Trigun (one of my all time favorite anime/manga series).

Yes, this storyline will be taking place after **The Conqueror of Shamballa**, during World War II and specifically during the European Theatre.

Yes, I do have an entire storyline planned out but please do not be expecting regular updates. I will try to make this as interesting as possible.

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**Beneath The Sky So Blue**

**Prologue**

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_Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth. – **Alphonse Elric**_**Full Metal Alchemist**

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A grey drizzle misted the sky, choking it with the dismal feeling of deep depression that had become a part of everyday life for the city of London. Cars putted down the cobblestone streets, the soles of shoes clapped against the pavement of sidewalks, the lowly murmur of voices and other mixing noises drifted through a wounded city. Jagged gaps in the skyline bit towards the sky like the battered grin of a fighter on the loosing end of a knock out punch. In many places rubble replaced buildings and other various forms of architecture, only further fueling the dreary state of the city. 

Everyone seemed to walk with hunched shoulders and a drag in their step. Their faces were weary and tried from the constant fear of being attacked at any given moment. Bombs had rained down upon them from the sky, pelting their lives with unimaginable destruction and upheaval that sent many innocents into a spiraling state of depression and hopelessness in the future. However, as citizens dragged their feet and proceeded to force themselves through the daily routine of life, there were some who managed to cling to something that remained of a once peaceful and bright life that fear of war had attempted to consume.

"Oi! Sensei!"

It was like a knife cutting through thick butter, words splitting the clammy air and arousing a sort of minor annoyance in quite a few who heard the loud shouting call. Foreign words that sounded a bit funny as a very much American voice produced them. Outside a small bakery, a few men had gathered to chat and read the paper as they had always done since before the war. They were long times friends since school, and each had families and grandchildren that they were utterly devoted to. Kindly older gentleman who offered friendly greetings to anyone coming in and out of the bakery, or passing by. But the shouting, and the use of such foreign words, caused them to pause amidst their conversation and scowl beneath thick bushy brows and hat brims.

Across the street from them on the other sidewalk, hands waving back and forth madly above her head, a young girl who looked somewhere in her mid to late teens had been the one to utter such a harsh shout. She now had several rather unamused glares bearing in her direction, but she seemed all but oblivious to them as she continued to bear a large grin on her young face. She was in the middle of that transition period where childhood disappears in the oncoming advancement of adulthood, so thus her face still retained a rather round childish look but held the sharper lines of maturity about the jawline. The grin she wore only further added to the child-like charm, causing a few passersby to smile a bit for some reason or other.

"Hey, come on now, you don't need to shout." A rather attractive looking man who appeared to be somewhere in his twenties, approached her with a bit of sheepish look on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. Beside him, another blonde gentleman who looked to be only a few years younger than he, followed along but was grinning as well minus the sheepishness the other had. "Seriously kiddo, your annoying when you shout like that."

"I really don't think you're one to talk." The girl shot back, a slender brow twitching above a green eye. Her arms jammed across her chest in a forceful and rather stubborn manner as she turned her face elsewhere to show her annoyance to the comment made at her expense.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" The man snapped, crossing what left of the gap between them and nearly setting himself right in her face. The vein on his right temple throbbed, golden eyes narrowing down at her since he stood a good half foot taller.

Returning her attention forward, her own forehead smacking right into his she curled the corner of her upper lip. "Exactly what it sounds like!" She retorted with a growl reminiscent to that of a small dog.

The man returned the growl and pushed forward against her brow since she decided to butt heads. In return, she pushed back so that as they tried to one up the other for dominance in the argument it appeared as though they were rising and falling in their height over one another. As they growled at one another, the other blonde stood off to the side, an embarrassed grin forming over the original one he had been wearing while a hand on the back of his neck while the other tried to wave for their attention as he knew they were causing a scene.

"Fuzake Na!" The girl suddenly shouted as she pulled her head back and then pitched it forward quickly so that her forehead collided with blonde's in one rather loud _**smack**_ that even had the older men standing in front to bakery flinching in response, as they could only imagine the headache.

The blonde teetered backwards a few steps, hands gloved in white clutching at the spot on his own forehead that had been struck. He gave a jumbled mix of curses that were strung together in a manner that sounded more like gibberish than anything else. Dropping his hands, he shot the girl a scathing look and appeared to be preparing a lung at her, however, the other blonde intervened by grabbing him by the arm to hold him back.

"Brother stop!" He commanded in more of an urging manner than anything else. "You see what you've been teaching her? Now she's even started using your own curses!"

"So what?! That doesn't give her the right to head butt me! I'm her teacher for chrissake!" The blonde hissed back in response. "I should be respected!"

This caused the younger blonde to suddenly choke on a laugh as he attempted to maintain a serious demeanor. However, his attempt failed as he burst into a fit of laughter and also released his brother. "You sound just like him!" He sputtered between gasps for air as he was near doubled over with laughter.

A rather red stain began to flush the other man's face, turning him beet red from both embarrassment and irritation to what had been said about him. "I-I do not!" He stammered, his arms now jamming over his chest to further object to the very idea suggested. However, the laughter merely continued and soon the girl joined in as well as it become rather contagious for some reason, causing the beet red to grow much more vibrant. "Al, shut the hell up already!"

"I'm sorry, brother." He laughed, "It's just so funny!" A whole fit of laughter over took him as he could hear the girl laughing as well. "Rae, stop it! I can't breathe!"

This caused the burning red man to whirl about and face her all over again, but as he opened his mouth let loose on her with a whole load of angry shouts and curses, he took notice of something peculiar. Peeking out from beneath the somewhat slanted line of her bangs, there was a red line that looked to be somewhere in between thick and thin as it slowly crawled out to further reveal itself. Loosing all steam, the blonde man stared with a slack jaw as he hunched forward and reached out a hand towards her forehead.

Swiping her bangs out of the way and to the side, he frowned as a rather red splotch stared back at him. Exhaling a heavy sigh he closed his eyes for a brief moment before he screwed his face up and gave the girl a rather reprimanding look. "You see what happens when you act stupid like that?!" He scolded.

There was a brief still pause that had the girl staring back at him with a rather blank look before she lifted a brow. "See what?"

The other blonde burst into a round of laughter while his brother grew irritated all over again. For a good fifteen minutes longer, the two bickered and even ended up a few physical hits on one another before they were separated finally. At the lead of the younger blonde, the group moved off down the street, the stares of the old men outside the bakery following them for a moment before they rounded a bend and disappeared.

"I'll never understand why she spends so much time with those brothers." One of the men muttered while shaking his head.

Another smirked a bit beneath a thick silver mustache. "I think it's done her some good to find friends." He mused, earning a few perplexed looks in return. "Rae has always been a firecracker from the get go, but when her father went off to fight in the war, her attitude dropped and she seemed to loose a lot of what was herself. But when those Elric brothers showed up, Rae took them like a moth to the flame." He grinned a bit more now as he recalled that day. "Warms my heart to see her smiling like that again."

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**Fuzake Na: **Many will recognize this as one of Ed's infamous lines from the anime series. The phrase roughly translates as _"Don't fuck with me!"_


	2. Chapter 2

**Beneath The Sky So Blue**

**Chapter One**

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"_Sounds fun-filled beyond belief..."_**Edward Elric, ****Full Metal Alchemist (Episode 13)**

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Portobello Road was a bit busier than the rest of the city outside of its defined marketplace, as it seemed as though everyone and their mother happened to be crowding themselves into the small narrows in hopes of finding a treasure of some kind or an item of use that they were in need of. About twenty minutes ago, the Elric Brothers – Edward and Alphonse, entered the marketplace place with their young friend – Rae Hawthorne. The reason for their little outing was actually an attempt to both celebrate Rae's seventeenth birthday and to keep her mind occupied with something else for the day.

"Rae!" Ed snapped rather quickly as he had lost sight of the girl for the seventh time already after entering the marketplace. Growing a bit more annoyed with each time he had to frantically look around for her, Ed could already feel his brow twitching after hearing the casual _'what?'_ from behind him. Spinning about quickly, he glared at the staring girl who seemed to have never once left where she had been standing for the passed five minutes with Al. The curious look and lifted brow was enough to cut the older Elric brother's anger by half as he coughed to clear his throat and bite off his annoyance. "Yes, well, just making sure we didn't _loose_ you again."

"Loose me?" The left corner of her mouth twitched with the early signs of a smirk that had yet to fully appear. "You didn't actually loose me, so much as I wandered off to look at something else." She replied, a rather pointed look taking over her expression and refueling Ed's annoyance right back to its original level.

Looking quickly between his brother and Rae, Al felt a sense of slight unease as he could see the two inching closer to another argument. "Come on guys, do you really need to start another argument?" He asked while frantically trying to direct their attention elsewhere.

"I'm not starting anything!" Ed hissed while shooting a quick narrow-eyed stare at his brother. "She's the one who keeps disappearing and freaking me out!"

"I didn't disappear, I've been standing next to Al the whole damn time!" Rae shot back in her own defense and brought Ed's attention right back down to her. "Maybe you should pay better attention to me than on whatever you were doing!"

"I have been paying attention!" Ed growled.

And once again, the two were up in one another's faces trying to stare the other down and claim victory in the new argument to prove that they were right and the other was wrong. This left Al to exhale a long defeated sigh and hang his head as it was painfully obvious that his brother and Rae were just not going to go the rest of the day without exchanging blows one way or another. That part became very much apparent as Ed had grabbed Rae in a headlock and was now trying force her into submission. _Those two have an incredibly weird teacher-student relationship. _

"Let go of my head!"

"Not until you start listening to me!"

_**Ten minutes later...**_

Both Ed and Rae sulked as they walked with Al in between them. Both refused to even look at the other, or even so much as say a single word. _The two of them are so much alike it's scary_. Al muttered to himself, eyes casting a glance to his brother and then Rae, noting that they both had their arms tucked back behind their heads and held pursed looks on their faces. _Very scary_.

As they made their way through the marketplace, Rae happened to casually look over towards her right where the other half of the vendors on the street had set up their stands and carts to display their goods. Something in a window wedged between a fruit vendor and an older woman selling clocks caught her eye immediately. It had caught her attention so much so that Rae had come to a complete stop on the street and allowed her arms to come down to her sides slowly.

Her green eyes were glued to the window, and before she was even aware of her own actions, Rae had taken a few jogging steps over to that window and continued to stare. Fortunately enough, Al had noticed Rae wandering off and stopped, which caused Ed to stop as well and look back over his shoulder to where Rae was currently standing.

"What's that girl doing now?" Ed wandered aloud in a mutter, hands still firmly tucked back behind his head, a slight scowl still prevalent on his face.

Shrugging, Al started off towards the window that had pulled Rae to itself, curious to see what had her so entranced. Mumbling something under his breath, Ed followed after his younger brother, mildly curious as well but not showing it at the moment. Coming up behind their young friend, the brothers stared in through the four squared window and felt their brows lift in response to seeing what it was being displayed on the bust of a slender neck.

Hanging from a thin silver chain a beautifully worked mini wire sculpture of a Monarch butterfly. The wings were carefully shaped in the basic outline while inside it held a web pattern that curved and interwove over itself to resemble the patterns on the real insects wings. At the center of its thinly wound body was bound a small piece of Lapis lazuli. The whole thing was completely flat and looked as though it could easily fit in the palm of one's hand. It glittered nicely in the dull afternoon light.

"It's pretty." Rae mumbled quietly as she stared at it with a near blank look on her face, but her eyes reflected the glitter of the necklace with her own personal excitement.

Al grinned. "I almost forgot that you like butterflies, Rae." He mused while glancing over at his brother. Ed shrugged at him in response.

"It's not so much that I like butterflies, than that they remind me of my dad." Rae replied, a bit of a small smile pulling at either corner of her mouth as she set a hand to the window pane. The small amount of dust on the glass smudged easily beneath her open palm.

Both brothers fell silent, their heads just starting to hang as Rae had brought up one of the few things they were trying to distract her from that day with their outing. Somehow they felt as though they may have just failed.

_I miss him._ Rae quietly winced at her own thoughts before pulling her hand from the glass and shook her head for reasons only known to her. "Well, we've spent enough time window-shopping here," She announced while quickly spinning about to the face the street, and in the process startled her two companions, "ON TO THE NEXT WINDOW!" Rae jabbed her fist into the air with only her index finger pointing out as indication to her want to move on. Thus she followed through with her own statement and marched her way back out on to the street.

Setting foot in the middle of Portobello Road, Rae expertly turned herself back into the direction they had been going (turning to the right) and then shot the Elric brothers a commanding look for them to follow her...Now. Ed exhaled a sigh while shoving his hands into the pockets of his brown coat and followed after Rae.

"Uh, brother?" Al hesitated, his gaze changing between Ed and the necklace in the window as if he were torn about something.

"Forget it Al. She just had a moment, and now she's over it." Ed replied while not even giving his younger brother a second look. "Let's just catch up with her before she disappears on us again."

Al frowned in response to Ed's rather nonchalant answer. Looking back at the necklace again, Al could feel his stomach twisting into a knot over the argument he batted about within his head. However, the fact that neither Ed nor Rae were going to wait for him at this point, Al swallowed down whatever it was that nagged at him and hurried to catch up with them before they vanished amongst the still milling crowds.

For a better part of the afternoon the trio browsed the marketplace, stopping here and there to look over the antiques and other sorts of odds and ends put out for sale. Although he had originally been animate over the fact that he wasn't going to buy Rae anything from the market, Ed ended up buying his student a few small trinkets that he acted none to pleased about, but found a great amount of amusement out of watching her grin and fiddle with her new possessions. Luckily enough for Ed, Rae was easily entertained by the smallest and least inexpensive things one could find in a place like Portobello Road.

The end of the marketplace was starting to appear now as the crowds seemed to be a bit thinner at this point down the street. Stopping at another trinket and knick-knack filled table, Ed hung back this time as Al and Rae crowded about the small vendor table to pick and pry like curious school children. Breathing a small laugh through his nose, Ed felt his attention being drawn elsewhere suddenly. That elsewhere was up towards the sky that was still grey with overcast and promising either the usual drizzle or an all out down pour. Although the sun was never fully seen these days, it was still simple to tell what time of day it was by the mere indication of either the lightening or darkening of the grey overhead.

_It's gotta be close to dinner._ Ed mused to himself, but the color of the sky itself hadn't been the reason why he looked up...was it? His golden-eyed gaze narrowed for a moment as if focusing in on something or other he couldn't quite make out at the moment.

"Ed-sensei...Oi, Ed-sensei!"

Snapping down out of his own trance by the sound her voice calling out to him, Ed's brows lifted as he noticed the rather curious look on Al's face and the irritated scowl on Rae's. "What?"

Al flinched at the question, mainly because he could already see Rae fuming at his side in response to Ed's rather oblivious state-of-mind. "Um, Rae...?"

Holding up a hand in his direction, Rae cut Al off before he could finish and took in a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. Straightening her posture and holding her shoulders back, Rae gave her teacher a rather brief but blank look, turned to her right, and walked off down towards the end of the street.

For nearly five seconds the two brothers watched her leave and only then did they exchange looks with one another before breaking into a run to catch up with her.


End file.
